Inside Baseball

STILL JACKIN'Amid heavy-duty spring hoopla, a focused McGwire has picked upwhere he left off

For a man considered to be baseball's bastion of truth andintegrity, Mark McGwire is one hell of a liar. "Nothing at all,"was his reply to the simple, somewhat silly question, What aboutthis year's spring training is different from last year's? "It'sthe same as always." This was roughly 30 seconds after McGwire,en route to the visitors' clubhouse at Dodgertown in Vero Beach,Fla., was greeted by a throng of 100 or more fans--including onewoman who'd waited six hours for an autograph--pushing andshoving one another against a metal fence. McGwire played 4 1/2innings in Sunday's game against L.A. When he didn't jog out tofirst base for the bottom of the fifth, half the 6,694 inattendance seemed to suddenly blow away.

Nothing at all?

"I still don't know how he deals with it so well," saysoutfielder J.D. Drew, the Cardinals' rookie phenom. "EverywhereMark goes, people are yelling his name, asking for a minute.You'd think spring would be more laid back. Not for him."

McGwire insists he doesn't mind. Really. "This is all part of myjob," he says, "and I love my job." However, McGwire cannot goto a mall, take a stroll, catch a movie--even in the sleepy townof Jupiter, Fla., where the Cardinals are based. "I'm not intoswimming or fishing," he says. "I don't do much here."

One thing he does do is hit home runs. In seven games he hadfive dingers in only 14 at bats, including two blasts on Sundayagainst Dodgers lefty Carlos Perez. His first-inning homerbarely cleared the leftfield fence. His second, a shot worthy ofthe Apollo program, smacked off the scoreboard in right centerand fell to a grassy knoll. A dozen kids swarmed to the balllike pigeons after a bread crumb. Keith Barrett, a skinny17-year-old, pushed two tykes out of the way, threw an elbow,dived headfirst and came up a winner.

"No way I'm sellin' this baby!" Barrett screamed.

One hundred dollars? someone suggested.

"No way."

Five hundred?

"Uh-uh."

Ten thousand?

"I'll never sell this ball. Never."

Same as always. Right, Mark?

Joe Torre's CancerYANKEES HOPE AND COPE

On his first full day as the third baseman on a Yankees teamwithout a manager, Scott Brosius assured himself that thingswould be O.K. Then, just to be certain, he prayed.

Last week's announcement that Joe Torre was suffering fromprostate cancer and would miss at least the rest of springtraining jolted the New York clubhouse. (Don Zimmer, 68, Torre'sclose friend and bench coach, will run the club while Torre isaway.) Will Torre's absence have an impact on the Yankees'performance? Unlikely. The team that won an American League-record 114 regular-season games last year possesses a remarkableself-sufficiency, a by-product of Torre's hands-off,trust-the-players approach. As catcher Joe Girardi says, "Onceyou're on the field, you focus on the game. That's how it works."

Perhaps no Yankee took the news of Torre's illness harder thanBrosius, a sensitive man whose mother died of lymphoma in 1989and whose father, Maury, was treated recently for colon cancer.While many on the team were numbed by Torre's situation, Brosiusspeaks of cancer like a human Merck Manual. He knows the ins andouts, the good days and bad days, the victories and, in hismother's case, the defeats.

"My first reaction to Joe's news was shock, but my second thoughtis, No matter what people say, this is not a baseball story,"Brosius says. "This is about a man with decisions that have to bemade about life. Joe Torre is a husband, he's a father, he's aperson before he's the manager of the Yankees."

Brosius spent part of his off-season visiting with seriously illchildren. He recalls one girl, just nine years old, with tumorsthroughout her body. There was a boy, 16, dying of brain cancer."You can't try and figure cancer out," he says. "Why does anine-year-old girl have it, and some 80-year-olds who've smokedtheir whole lives don't? It's not a predictable disease."

The Yankees say they will not use Torre's cancer as a rallyingcry for the season. The players consider this a situation thatwill pass, an illness, not an ending. "Joe's a very strongperson," says reliever Darren Holmes. "Every day we'd see himlifting weights, working on the stair climber. He's in goodshape, and they caught it early. We expect the best."

Piercing TalentMARLINS' ODD MAN IN?

Mark Fidrych talked to the ball. Al Hrabosky talked to himself.Bill (Spaceman) Lee was known to wear a propeller beanie ontothe field. A.J. Burnett has...nipple rings. "Hurt like youwouldn't believe," the 22-year-old Arkansan says of having hisaccessories installed. "I once had knee surgery, and it didn'tcompare. The nipples were five seconds of torturous pain."

That also pretty much describes an at bat against the Marlinsrighthander, whose reputation--for his 97-mph fastball as wellas his wackiness--is spreading through the Grapefruit League. Inaddition to the nipple rings, Burnett sports silver hoops inboth ears and an abstract blue tattoo on his left biceps. Hisfavorite band is Marilyn Manson. His favorite baseball team?"I'm not quite sure," he says earnestly.

Oh, yeah--pitching. At Class A Kane County (Ill.) last season,Burnett went 10-4 with 186 strikeouts in 119 innings. Hisfastball has, in the words of catcher Jorge Fabregas, "a wholelot of pop to it." Burnett also throws a knuckle curve in thehigh 80s and a well-developed changeup. Marlins manager JohnBoles invited Burnett to spring training with the idea ofsending him to Double A or Triple A. But with each impressiveperformance this spring, Burnett has made Boles'sdecision--Devil Rays refugee Dennis Springer or Burnett as hisfifth starter--more difficult. Burnett struck out four of theseven University of Miami batters he faced in his firstappearance, and he went 2 2/3 innings without allowing a runagainst Montreal on March 10. "He'll have to have an absolutelyknockout spring training to stay with us," says Boles. "But sofar...."

Growing up in North Little Rock, Burnett played catcher, thirdbase--everything, it seemed, but pitcher. Even in high school,at Central Arkansas Christian, although, Burnett says, he couldthrow in the low 90s, coaches didn't use him on the mound. Then,in 1995, at the end of his senior year, he pitched four games.At one of those, a seven-inning shutout against RussellvilleHigh, a Mets scout happened to be in the stands. That June, NewYork picked Burnett, a pitcher for all of three weeks, in theeighth round of the draft. Burnett went to Florida in February1998 in the Al Leiter deal.

"I dreamed of playing baseball, but as a position player," hesays. "I could always throw pretty hard, but I never thought thiswould happen. It's weird, isn't it." Weird is the word.

End of the RoadLISTACH'S BROKEN PROMISE

Not long after he hit .290, stole 54 bases and was named the1992 American League Rookie of the Year, infielder Pat Listachwas offered some wisdom by a Brewers teammate. "That was theworst thing you could do," said third baseman Kevin Seitzer, whoas a rookie in '87 had stroked 207 hits. "You've put the bar ata high level. From now on you either reach it every year, oryou're a disappointment."

At the time Listach thought Seitzer was kidding. Listach was 25years old with a sparkling future--Milwaukee's shortstop of the'90s. Nearly seven years later Seitzer's look on the dark sideseems all too accurate. "I wouldn't flat out say that havingthat rookie season hurt my career," says Listach. "But sometimesI'm not so sure." He is 31 now, and last Thursday, afterspending the first few weeks of spring training as a nonrosterinvitee with the Reds, he was released. Listach may have come tothe end of his baseball road after playing for sevenorganizations, having two knee operations and missing out on oneWorld Series.

At Milwaukee's home opener in '93, Listach received a resoundingovation from the County Stadium crowd his first time up, but hesuffered hamstring injuries in June and September and missed 64games. The next season he appeared in the first 16 games, wenton the disabled list with tendinitis in his left knee and didn'tplay again. Although he came back to appear in 101 games in '95,Listach batted just .219. "You know, I never hit .290 before Iwas a rookie," he says. "I didn't expect to hit that high everyyear. But everyone else expected me to."

On Aug. 23, 1996, Listach was traded with reliever Graeme Lloydto the Yankees. When an MRI a few days later revealed that hehad a broken right foot, Listach immediately went on thedisabled list. He was issued Yankees pinstripes but never playedan inning for New York. On Oct. 2, Listach was sent back toMilwaukee, and the Yankees went on to win the World Series. Fromthat point on, Listach's life has been a whirlwind of buses andplanes as he has bounced around the minors and the big leaguesas the property of the Astros, Indians, Mariners, Phillies andReds.

He thought he was a lock to make Seattle's roster last seasonbut was cut during the final week of spring training."Devastating," he calls it. "I did everything they asked, hit.300 in spring, worked my tail off." He stops. "Sometimes, Iwonder if it's all worth it."

Listach hit a combined .219 in two Triple A stops last season.Clearly, he does not have the range or speed he had early in hiscareer. Yet he has still not considered an alternativeoccupation. "I can still run, I can still hit," he says. "I lovebaseball too much to stop trying."

Johnson-Dodgers SplitNOT-SO-SWEET PARTING

Charles Johnson, the four-time National League Gold Glove winnerand new Orioles catcher, is a quiet man. In the spring trainingclubhouse in Fort Lauderdale, he speaks softly and rarely. Butbring up his former team, the Dodgers, and the decibel levelrises.

That's because Johnson believes he was unfairly ripped by LosAngeles senior vice president Tommy Lasorda during the generalmanagers' meetings in Naples, Fla., last November. Lasordacomplained that Johnson had ignored the team's request to playin the Arizona Fall League and work on his hitting. "We wantedhim there," Lasorda said. "Charles should be a much betterhitter."

The comments stung Johnson. "That never happened, absolutely,positively never did," the catcher says of the request Lasordacited. "He never called to ask me to go. He never even called tocongratulate me when I won the Gold Glove. I try hard tocooperate with the organization and do what's right. Theytarnished my reputation. It was a slap in the face."

Why didn't Johnson voice his objections at the time? "Not toomany people asked me," he says.

Johnson, 27, who shortly after Lasorda's comments was traded toBaltimore in a five-player, three-team deal that sent catcherTodd Hundley from the Mets to the Dodgers, spent the winter athome in Fort Pierce, Fla., working out and caring for his newson, Brandon. In four-plus major league seasons Johnson hasestablished himself as perhaps the game's finest defensivecatcher. However, his offense, which appeared to be on theupswing in '97, when he hit .250 with 19 home runs and 63 RBIsfor the Marlins, has regressed.

In addition to hitting just .218 combined for Florida and L.A.last year, Johnson has let his strikeout totals increase eachseason, whiffing 129 times in '98. He swings wildly and oftenwithout much thought. Baltimore hitting coach Terry Crowley sayshis new pupil needs to focus less on hitting for power, more ongoing deeper into the count. "If Charles can have tough at batsand make the pitcher work," he says, "it'll be a successfulyear."

Ever the student, Johnson says he is excited by the challenge ofplaying in the American League. He's already making mental noteson the tendencies of the Orioles' pitchers. "At first I'll relya lot on my instincts," he says. "To really know a pitcher, ittakes a year of working together. You're always learning. Thething I like here is that it's a veteran staff, so I can followtheir lead and feel comfortable. What I worry more about islearning the opposing hitters."

It's good that he doesn't have much time to dwell on the past.Everything that happened to him in '98, including Florida'ssending him to L.A. in the blockbuster Mike Piazza deal lastMay, still rankles. "I thought I'd be with the Marlins forlife," says the Florida native and former University of MiamiAll-America. "It's a reminder that baseball is a business."

Just how hard up are some teams for lefthanded pitching? LosAngeles asked 38-year-old Fernando Valenzuela to come toDodgertown and battle for a bullpen gig. Valenzuela, out ofbaseball last season, declined....

One of Padres general manager Kevin Towers's priorities thiswinter was to unload reliever Randy Myers and his $6 millionsalary for 1999. Last August, Towers made the mistake ofacquiring Myers, 36, from the Blue Jays. His thought at thetime: Don't let the Braves get him. His thought now, after Myersput up a 6.28 ERA in San Diego and closer Trevor Hoffman wasjust re-signed to a four-year, $32 million extension: Help!...

Copies of Heat, the recently released autobiography of Indiansrighthander Dwight Gooden, were scattered throughout theCleveland clubhouse. Don't expect the Tigers' Gregg Jefferies toask the author for an autographed copy. In the book Goodenrecalls his former Mets teammate as "a baby" who'd "been cateredto his whole career."...

Third baseman Pete Rose Jr. is in the Dodgers' camp after hisfather called G.M. Kevin Malone and asked for the favor. RoseJr., 29, who made his major league debut with the Reds inSeptember 1997 and was cut loose a month later, says he thinkshe'll make L.A.'s major league roster. According to teamofficials, Pete Sr. has a better chance....

Milton Bradley, a 20-year-old outfielder in camp with the Expos,says his favorite game is Scrabble.

The Real Class of '92

Infielder Pat Listach (above), who was released last week by theReds (his seventh organization in the last 2 1/2 years), was theoverwhelming choice for American League Rookie of the Year in1992. However, more than a few of Listach's peers have gone onto outshine him. Here's a sampling of how some of those otherrookies from '92 have fared.

PLAYER, '92 TEAM POS. LOOK AT HIM NOW

Derek Bell, Blue Jays OF As an Astro: 17 homers, 113RBIs in '96; 22 and 108 in '98

Scott Brosius, A's OF-3B '98 World Series MVP with Yankees

Damion Easley, Angels 3B-2B Averaged 24.5 homers and 86RBIs last two years with Tigers

Pat Hentgen, Blue Jays P '96 American League Cy Youngwinner

Roberto Hernandez, P Averaged almost 30 saves aWhite Sox year last six seasons

Kenny Lofton, Indians OF Five-time league leader insteals is .311 career hitter